Rural Queenslanders have seen gas projects come and go – but a 725-hectare datacentre poses a whole new level of ‘stupidity’

Residents of Dalby may soon live beside a $31bn datacentre. The premier sees ‘opportunity’ for the state – but others fear AI’s global creep From the veranda on his bush block, Denver Kanowski has watched resources companies come and go from rural Queensland for 70 years. The home cost him $800, and lets him live how he likes, in nature.

It’s also in the middle of a gasfield, not far from the Linc Energy contamination site, down the road from a coalmine and three gas power plants. Last month came the biggest scheme yet, a $31bn datacentre to power Claude, the large language model developed by global AI giant Anthropic. If built, Australia’s largest datacentre would be about 15 minutes’ drive away from Kanowski’s home, outside Kogan, near Dalby, about 180km west of Brisbane.

In a community that has seen the boom and bust of coal seam gas, the response from many has been the same as Kanowski’s: once bitten, twice shy. “This is the power of money and the power of greed and shortsighted stupidity,” Kanowski says. Anthropic’s project…